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Inquiry into unions set to start

A difficult year for trade unions will continue on Wednesday, when former High Court justice Dyson Heydon makes a formal statement outlining the direction his royal commission will take.

Five unions will be the focus of his inquiry into governance, slush funds and corruption including kickbacks and bribes.

The Abbott government established the royal commission in response to a string of union scandals.

Commissioner Heydon will lead the preliminary hearing in Sydney, where counsel assisting will also make an opening statement, but no witnesses will be called.

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The hearing comes less than a month after the sentencing of former Health Services Union (HSU) officials Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson for fraud, and follows the airing of corruption claims against the construction union.

The HSU, along with the Australian Workers Union, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Electrical Trades Union and Transport Workers Union, will be targeted by the commission.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the royal commission is needed to "shine a big spotlight" on the unions.

The unions have called the royal commission a political witch-hunt designed to weaken the labour movement, while Labor says allegations of union corruption should be referred to police.

But Mr Abbott is not the only one who wants an investigation into the unions.

Former HSU official Marco Bolano says the royal commission is needed to shine a "giant light" on the union movement after Thomson's sentencing.

Corruption is not just limited to "one or two bad apples" and is "commonplace" within the movement, he says.

Former federal Labor ministers Simon Crean and Martin Ferguson, one-time ACTU presidents, have also called for sections of the union movement to get their house in order.